Newsletter

JON M. FLETCHER / The Times-Union -- 010410 -- At the Duval County Courthouse Monday morning, January 4, 2010, a tear streams down the cheek of Jacksonville Police Officer Marcus Kilpatrick as he listens to statements from the family of 86-year-old Matthew Ogden Jr., who was killed in an accident involving Officer Kilpatrick. The officer pleaded guilty to traffic charges in the January 14, 2009, wreck that occurred when Kilpatrick, traveling at a high rate of speed, struck Ogden's pickup truck while pursuing a motorist he suspected of having window tinting darker than allowed by law. (Jon M. Fletcher, The Florida Times-Union)

--Don.Burk@jacksonville.com--03/22/11--Former SGT. Marc Garza, of Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, is sentenced to 9 months in the Duval County jail after being convicted of ordering a police officer to write a fake burglary report to cover up an illegal search on a house. In Jacksonville, Florida, on Tuesday, March 22, 2011. (Don Burk/ The Florida Times-Union).

Bob.Mack@jacksonville.com -- 11/10/11-- Nassau County FBI informant and former Nassau deputy, Brandon Smith, is a key witness against Nassau Sheriff Tommy Seagraves. Smith stood at the county line along US-17 on November 10, 2011. (The Florida Times-Union, Bob Mack)

Florida Department of Corrections Mug -- 2/17/11 -- Donald Silcott: The JSO evidence technician was arrested and charged with three counts of sexual battery on a child between 12 and 18 by a custodial authority and three counts of lewd and lascivious battery in September, 2009. He resigned at the time of his arrest and plead guilty to a single count of sexual battery in December, 2010 and was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in jail. (Florida Department of Corrections)

BRUCE LIPSKY/Times-Union --JSO Officer Rick Cannon cruises up the St. Johns River toward a manatee zone around the Exchange Club Island Sunday. The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office Marine Unit joined with local, state and national law enforcement units in the Northeast Florida Maritime Task Force Cooperative Manatee Enforcement Effort on Sunday 2, 2007 in Jacksonville, FL. The joint effort began Saturday and will run through Monday.(The Florida Times-Union, Bruce Lipsky)

Bruce.Lipsky@jacksonville.com--09/02/11--Reginald Luster, attorney representing the Brotherhood of Police Officers, talks to Reginald Lott (R) after the sentencing. Judge Thomas M. Beverly sentenced former Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Lt. Reginald Lott to a year in jail for stealing thousands of dollars from the Brotherhood of Police Officers on Friday September 02, 2011 in the Duval County Courthouse in Jacksonville, FL. (Florida Times-Union, Bruce Lipsky) 2011

Dozens of police officers on the First Coast have been fired or left on their own while being investigated since 2007, according to an analysis of discipline records by the Times-Union.

The newspaper requested the names of employees at the Duval, Clay, St. Johns, Nassau and Baker county sheriff’s offices that have been suspended, demoted, resigned under investigation or fired since 2007.

The analysis found 304 have been disciplined in the past five years. Of that number, 92 were fired and 78 resigned while under investigation. Dozens of others were suspended or demoted. The analysis did not include lesser punishments, such as written reprimands or counseling.

Some of the officers had been disciplined multiple times before resigning or being terminated, and many were fired for multiple violations.

In that time period, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office had 100 suspensions, 46 terminations and 44 people resigning under investigation.

“Our officers have to be able to get on a stand and have credibility with the public,” Sheriff John Rutherford said. “If you don’t have that credibility you shouldn’t be here.”

Rutherford said officers have to be honest with both the public and their supervisors, and occasionally they get fired for stupid lies.

“I can remember one time a woman complained that an officer cursed at her,” Rutherford said. “He denied it, but on the phone recording when she called 911, we could hear him cursing at her.”

That officer was fired for lying, Rutherford said, but if he had just admitted to doing it, he might have been let off with a reprimand.

Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler said it’s an unfortunate fact of life that wrongdoing occurs in all law enforcement agencies. But the good agencies stamp it out quickly.

“I’m not proud of wrongdoing in this agency,” Beseler said, “But out of 500 to 600 employees, we will have some bad apples.”

Clay has had 16 officers who were fired, 12 who resigned under investigation and 10 who were suspended since 2007.

Nelson Cuba, head of the Jacksonville Fraternal Order of Police, said his organization will assist officers in trouble by helping them if the charges are unfair, or encouraging them to get training if they’ve fallen behind.

But occasionally, the union will tell officers that they’re better off resigning.

“We do have those conversations sometimes,” Cuba said. “We let them know if we think it’s best for them to move on.”

“To be honest, I kind of prefer it when someone resigns under investigation before we fire them,” Rutherford said. “It saves us time and money, and they can’t sue us.”

GETTING A SECOND CHANCE

Many officers get disciplined more than once before being fired or leaving on their own.

Ranada Bodison was suspended by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office in 2008 for failure to conform to work standards and failure to follow procedures. She was suspended again in 2009 for failure to conform to work standards, leave abuse and repeated infractions. Ultimately, she was fired in 2010 for failure to conform to work standards, leave abuse and repeated infractions.

Michael Williams was suspended from Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office in 2009 on charges of improper action, unbecoming conduct, failure to conform to work standards and repeated infractions. He was then suspended again in 2010 for unbecoming conduct, failure to conform to work standards and repeated infractions. He resigned under investigation in 2011 while facing charges of commission of conduct supporting criminal acts, unbecoming conduct and failure to obey an order.

Brandon Smith was suspended from the Nassau Sheriff’s Office in June 2011 on charges of insubordination and failure to maintain good order and discipline. He resigned under investigation in October 2011 while facing charges of failure to maintain security of agency business.

Smith said he resigned after Sheriff Tommy Seagraves bullied him upon discovering that Smith was working as an FBI informant as part of a probe of Seagraves and his agency. Smith secretly taped about a dozen meetings he had with Seagraves and provided the FBI with firsthand accounts of what he says are crimes and other wrongdoings by deputies and misconduct by Seagraves and some of his staff.

Seagraves has denied doing anything wrong and no arrests have been made in the investigation. He did not return several calls to comment on this story.

In St. Johns County, Brian Alli was fired twice by the Sheriff’s Office in five months. He was dismissed in September for abusing the Florida Crime Information Center and National Crime Information Center. He was then fired as a reserve officer in February 2009 for bringing disrepute to the Sheriff’s Office.

“Sometimes we try to give someone a second chance,” said St. Johns Sheriff’s Office spokesman Chuck Mulligan. “And sometimes that doesn’t work out.”

Rutherford said giving someone a second chance is not a mistake.

“I want to try and correct behavior. That’s what discipline is supposed to do,” he said. “I don’t want to fire them unless I have no other choice.”

Other departments agree.

“Some people get in trouble once, learn the lesson, and are never a problem again,” said Sgt. Shawn Lee of the St. Johns Sheriff’s Office internal affairs department. “But others never learn.”

Beseler said every case of wrongdoing doesn’t merit firing, provided the employee learns from his or her mistake.

“We do focus on education,” he said. “It can create a better employee instead of a bitter employee.”

But some violations cannot be forgiven.

“If you violate the car policy we might let you off easy,” said James Pimentel, general counsel for the Clay Sheriff’s Office. “If you lie about it, you’re gone.”

A MORE PROFESSIONAL POLICE AGENCY

Rutherford said the way police officers are trained and led has changed since he came up in the 1970s.

“The professionalism is much higher,” he said. “The training is also better.”

Police departments used to see training as a necessary evil. That’s changed, partly because of the fear of lawsuits and partly because it’s clear that a well-trained police force is a better police force, said Rutherford, who once ran the police academy.

John Hartley, director of investigations and homeland security for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, said cops must understand the position they hold within the community.

“Ethically, officers are held to a much higher standard than the general public,” he said. “And that’s really how it should be.”

Hartley said a lot more attention is now paid to how cops supervise officers under them.

“Most people who get in trouble start off with minor things, and as supervisors we’re not supposed to tolerate that,” Hartley said. “When you don’t think your supervisor will let you get away with little things, it makes you more likely to do the right thing.”

A generation ago, the concept that the higher-ups were responsible for keeping the people underneath them honest was not as entrenched. Now everyone in a supervisor position goes through classes that stress it, Hartley said.

Technology has also made it easier to check up on potential job applicants.

“Back when I started, we had gypsy cops who would get in trouble and just go somewhere else,” Beseler said. “But with the background checks we have now, that doesn’t happen.”

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement keeps a database on every officer in the state, so if a cop is fired or resigns under investigation for some wrongdoing, other departments will see it when that officer applies for a job with them.

“If I see someone left their last job because they lied or resigned under investigation, I’m not hiring them,” he said. “It’s a pretty easy call.”

The FDLE system also alerts a current employer if someone gets in trouble.

“Now if one of my officers goes to Key West for a weekend and gets arrested,” Beseler said, “we’ll know about it by the next day.”

Jacksonville Fire and Pension Fund Executive Director John Keane said most people arrested or fired for wrongdoing ask for the money they put into the retirement fund back before they’re eligible to collect the pension. They get only the money they put into the system, not one cent more.

“If they want their money back we give it to them,” Keane said. “We don’t ask why.”

However, former Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office detective Richard Cannon is likely to be the first to lose his pension benefits.

Under Florida law, public employees who commit a felony against a minor automatically lose their pension benefits if they use the power of their position as part of their crime.

Cannon, a 25-year veteran, pleaded guilty last month to two sex charges in attacks on two girls, including one under the age of 12. He faces up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced this month.

Assistant State Attorney Alan Mizrahi said Cannon used “threats of getting fired and his authority over the girls as a police officer to keep them quiet.”

That makes Cannon’s case different from a case involving Donald L. Silcott. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office evidence technician admitted sexually assaulting a teenage girl at his Jacksonville home while his own children were sleeping.

Though Silcott and Cannon’s crimes sound similar, Silcott keeps his pension because authorities said he didn’t abuse his authority as a police officer.

Keane said a hearing will be held to determine the fate of Cannon’s pension.

“This is the first time we’ve ever dealt with something like this,” he said.

Cannon’s criminal attorneys said they would not be representing him in the pension matter and didn’t know if another lawyer would be handling it. Cannon could not be reached for comment.

Cuba, head of the police union, said his organization would not be assisting Cannon in any way.

According to Keane, only six of the 144 Jacksonville officers who resigned under investigation or were fired in the last five years are getting pensions. Other officers may get them when they become eligible — 20 years after their start date at the Sheriff’s Office.

One of the few collecting a pension is Reginald Lott, who resigned under investigation and was sentenced to a year in jail after he admitted to stealing $51,000 while treasurer for the Brotherhood of Police Officers in 2011.

The nonprofit is made up of about 100 minority police and corrections officers who do charity work.

He is able to collect his pension because the theft didn’t involve city funds, then-Undersheriff Frank Mackesy told the Times-Union after Lott’s arrest.

Rutherford said he thinks most police officers should be allowed to keep their pensions, even if he fires them for wrongdoing. He does support stripping pensions from officers who commit severe crimes like murder, rape or violent assault.

“I’m concerned about the wife and children being the one to suffer for something they had nothing to do with,” Rutherford said. “Obviously they’re going to suffer anyway, but you don’t want them to be destitute.”